Rangers must deal in the Real McKay
IF Rangers let Barrie McKay slip out of their grasp, it will prove one of two things. Either Pedro Caixinha isn’t responsible for deciding which players he retains during his first transfer window at the helm. Or the Portuguese head coach has no footballing soul.
Honestly, how could anyone doubt the value of a player who instantly makes his team better just by taking to the field?
As great as Kenny Miller has been for Rangers, and this is all relative in a difficult season, no one would argue that the veteran striker is worth more to the club than a 22-year-old blessed with quick feet, a sharp mind, an eye for opposition weak spots — and a first touch so gentle that he could control fresh eggs dropped from the Club Deck at Ibrox without so much as cracking a shell.
Yet McKay has revealed that, having rejected the first offer of a contract extension, he’s heard nothing back from the club. No fresh invitation to talks through his agent. No reassuring arm around his shoulder and a promise that they’ll get things sorted.
In case you haven’t noticed, chaps, your best player — linked with any number of major clubs back in January — is about to enter the final year of his contract.
Already, he’s worth less than he was just a few months ago. Leave it until the winter break and Mark Warburton, dead keen to take McKay to Nottingham Forest, will gladly get one over on his old club by pinching a Rangers star for buttons.
Yet no new contract offer has been forthcoming. Could it be that they just don’t want McKay to stay? Maybe not enough to pay him what he’s worth.
There is an undercurrent at work here. A suggestion, no more than that, of indifference towards McKay on the part of the head coach.
Pedro hasn’t always picked him as a starter. The wide man didn’t make it off the bench as Caixinha presided over a record home defeat to Celtic, for instance.
And his introduction as a late sub against Partick Thistle, McKay naturally changing the game to inspire a Rangers win, felt like a last resort for a manager who had run out of ideas on the day.
Whatever vision Caixinha may have for rebuilding a team in his own image, however much leeway he might get for recruitment beyond a couple of raids on Motherwell, it’s hard to imagine a system or style of play that benefit from the presence of a player who provides an out-ball under pressure — courtesy of that infallible first touch — and a little extra something against teams packed tight. Of all the many things that have gone wrong at Rangers this year, McKay is not a major part of the problem.
Caixinha has previously — and very publicly — challenged the player to prove himself worthy of a deal.
Then, just a week or so ago, insisted that he wanted an answer from McKay within days.
Netting the winner in Saturday’s low-key home win over Hearts was a response of sorts, even if he would have liked to have seen more fans in attendance to witness his onfield riposte. Even more surprising was the player’s revelations about the lack of a new offer. Something doesn’t add up.
At a time when leaks from within the dressing room make Caixinha look about as authoritative as Jeremy Corbyn, this latest twist seems to suggest that the head coach isn’t being kept in the loop by those who sign the cheques at Ibrox.
Hang on a minute. Cheques. You know, there might just be a third possible explanation for this lack of movement.
Maybe Rangers simply don’t have the money to let Pedro conduct a massed clear-out and award a bumper deal to any player.
Perhaps a reluctance to accede to McKay’s demands, allied to the lure of possibly landing hard cash for him right now, means they’re willing to listen to offers not as an option — but a necessary evil.
No. It couldn’t be that. Surely not.